If you're careful, you can use the replace feature. Change all "P " or " P
" with match case to " Plaintif" or " Plaintif ". You just need to be sure
that you don't have any other use of a spaceP or spacePspace that
shouldn't be changed to 'Plaintif'. I've screwed similar replaces before
because I didn't realize how many other uses would be replaced rather than
the ones I intended. In the future, use a unique spelling that would be
easier to replace (e.g., &P&, *P*, etc.). Use a "replace all" or do them
one at a time to ensure that you aren't replacing the wrong ones.


"Jay Freedman" wrote in message
news
On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 17:29:03 -0700, Norm Y Norm
wrote:

I am typing a quasi legal document and used the letters P for Plaintif and
D
for Defendent. Is there a way to automatically convert them to the full
word
?

Not with the single letters -- or else *every* P in the document would
be changed to Plaintiff and every D would be changed to Defendant (and
I hope you spell them correctly in your documents).

If you choose a unique two-character abbreviation for each word, you
can use them as the names of AutoCorrect entries. For example, you
could use /p for Plaintiff and /d for Defendant.

To make an AutoCorrect entry, type the expanded word in the document,
select it, go to Tools AutoCorrect Options, and enter the
abbreviation in the Replace box.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org